Donut Bokeh With Autofocus: The Unique Kase 150mm f/5.6 Mirror Lens Tested
Choosing a telephoto lens usually means choosing between size, cost, and autofocus capability. The Kase 150mm f/5.6 autofocus mirror lens is trying to hit all three at once, and that's not something any lens has really pulled off before at this price point.
Manual vs. AI Retouching: What Happens When You Zoom In
Portrait retouching is one of those skills where the gap between fast and good is enormous. Generative AI can fill in a blemish in seconds, but the moment you zoom in, the skin texture looks synthetic, the pores disappear, and the person starts to look like someone else entirely.
Why Your Landscape Skills Are Perfect for Street Photography
Street photography can be intimidating for those of us who usually stick to nature. But after spending years shooting landscapes, I've realized that the transition to the city isn't really about learning new techniques. It's about realizing you already have most of the tools.
Dear Lisa: I’m Fully Booked and Still Broke
A photographer can shoot 30 weddings a year, stay booked months in advance, and still feel a quiet dread every time an unexpected expense hits the account. This advice-column piece tackles that disconnect — why so many working photographers are fully booked and still broke, and what actually fixes it.
The LetterDear Lisa,
I feel ridiculous writing this because if you looked at my Instagram, you'd probably think I was doing really well.
The Best Speakers We've Ever Heard Cost $99 (Part 2)
A while back, I made the mistake of comparing my old Polk TSi100 bookshelf speakers against much more expensive speakers. Somehow, my cheap speakers won. Now it's time for round two.
In that first test, I preferred the Polk TSi100 speakers. So did everyone else who listened blind. Naturally, that made audiophiles angry. The main criticism was that I was using bookshelf speakers as near field computer speakers, and that I should be comparing them to proper studio monitors instead.
So that is exactly what I did.
AI Has Made Real Estate Videography Obsolete
New AI software can now create incredibly accurate video from still images, and the Real Estate video market is about to change forever.
For years, real estate video has followed the same formula. You show up with a camera, maybe a gimbal, maybe a drone, and you create a polished walkthrough of the property. You glide through the front door, pan across the kitchen, show off the pool, and end with a dramatic exterior shot. It has worked because there was no better option. This is now outdated.
The Authenticity Trend Is the Best Thing to Happen to Photography in a Decade
Every January, the trend forecasts roll in. And every year for at least the last five, "authenticity" has appeared somewhere on the list, wedged between AI predictions and whatever retro aesthetic is cycling back. By now, it would be reasonable to dismiss it as an empty buzzword, the kind of thing that sounds important in a webinar and means nothing in practice.
Everything You Need To Know About Shooting Log Video Footage (S-Log3)
Most of us know that shooting in a flat log picture profile will give you the highest quality video footage but the workflow has always been too difficult to deal with. I've created Fstoppers' LUTs for Sony cameras and a shooting and editing workflow that changes everything.
Canon EOS R6 Mark III vs. Sony a7 V: Which Full Frame Camera Wins in Real-World Use?
Choosing between the Canon EOS R6 Mark III and the Sony a7 V is one of the more genuinely difficult calls in full frame photography right now. These are the two cameras sitting at the top of the hybrid market, and the differences between them are real but subtle enough that the wrong choice is easy to make.
How to Color Grade Photos in Lightroom Using Complementary Colors
Color grading in Lightroom can be the difference between a photo that feels alive and one that falls flat. The color grading panel is one of the most powerful tools in Lightroom, but most people either skip it entirely or use it wrong.
This One-Light Setup Produces Headshots and Brand Portraits From the Same Frame
One speedlight and a diffusion setup can go a long way toward producing a clean, versatile portrait. Knowing exactly how to position, power, and modify a single flash is the kind of skill that makes the difference between a shot that works for one purpose and one that works for a dozen.
The Viltrox TC 2.0 Doubles Your Reach for Half the Price of Sony's Version
The Viltrox TC 2.0 is the first third-party 2x teleconverter for Sony E-mount, and it cuts into Sony's own $600 option at just $280. That price gap alone is worth paying attention to, but the real question is whether the performance holds up.
Behind the Scenes: Secrets of Light Painting a Desert Cabin at Night
I set out to photograph and light paint a mysterious, dilapidated homestead cabin in the Mojave Desert under moonlight. With nothing more than a flashlight and a single long exposure, I turned it into a glowing, cinematic scene. Here's exactly how I did it, and how you can too.
I'll also discuss some of the issues one might run into while attempting to photograph this abandoned cabin. I did the entire photo in a single exposure, however.
But first, let's find out what "light painting" is.
Barely Lifting a Finger: Editing With the XP-Pen Pilot Pro Editing Console
Imagine your editing workflow being enhanced by something that resembles the controllers you once played video games with. That, plus customizable efficiency, is what this editing console offers.
The Difference Between Image Stabilization and a Fast Shutter Speed
Your camera has image stabilization. Your lens might, too. You also have a shutter speed dial that goes up to 1/8,000 of a second. Both of these tools fight blur, but they fight different kinds of blur, and mixing them up is one of the most common mistakes beginners make.
Here is the distinction in one sentence: image stabilization compensates for your hands shaking. A fast shutter speed freezes your subject moving. They are solving two completely separate problems, and understanding which one you need in a given moment will immediately make your hit rate go up.
Sony a7R VI vs. a7 V: The Differences That Actually Matter
Choosing between the Sony a7R VI and the a7 V isn't straightforward, even though one costs significantly more than the other. The sensor architecture, video specs, and body features differ in ways that could genuinely change which one makes sense for how you actually shoot.
The Image That Doesn’t Move
There are photographs that seem to exist entirely on their surface.
You look at them and everything is already there. A trailer, parked on a patch of dirt. A road cutting the foreground. Mountains in the distance. A sky that holds the whole thing together without insisting too much. And across the side of the trailer, a name stretched in bold letters, impossible to ignore.
Sony 100-400mm f/4.5 GM Review: Can It Replace Two Lenses in Your Bag?
The Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM OSS has been a staple of wildlife and action shooting for years, but Sony just rebuilt the concept from scratch. The new version brings a constant f/4.5 aperture to a zoom range that has never had one before, and that single change reshapes how the lens competes against the rest of Sony's telephoto lineup.
One Tuscan Morning, 12 Different Images: How to Read the Light
Shooting the same Tuscan scene for two hours straight and walking away with a dozen completely different images isn't luck. It comes down to reading how light moves across a landscape.
Why Returning to the Same Location Over and Over Makes You a Better Photographer
Returning to the same location dozens of times sounds like the opposite of creative growth, but it might be exactly what separates good work from great work. The conditions you encounter on any given day, the light, the weather, the season, shape the image more than the location itself ever could.